Several PC tech-type sorts have put the new card through its paces, and have found that it just blows right on by the previous record-holder, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 295.

Course, it had want to. It's got two GPU's on the one card, and will cost you around $600.

I always knew the day would come where my 8800GT felt truly inadequate. I believe that day is today.

First off the starting blocks will be ATi's Radeon HD 5800 series of cards (starting with the HD 5850 and 5870), which should be hitting stores as early as next month. Nvidia's first line of DX11 cards - the GT300 range - will follow in December.

Suddenly, my 8800 GT doesn't look so trusty anymore.

Nvidia and AMD readying for DirectX 11 [Digitimes, via Gizmodo]

Fed up with all the Xs and numbers and mindless claims on the back of the box, Gizmodo have a handy little guide up showing you how to find what you're looking for in a crowded, confusing market. Where to look for information, who to trust, that sort of thing.

Useful! I mean, I'm an avid PC gamer and even I struggle to stay on top of the graphics card market. Last I checked, the word eXtreme didn't really mean anything.

Giz Explains: How to Choose the Right Graphics Card [Gizmodo]

A report over on VentureBeat says that the debut of this "next gen" tech will be so important to both companies that "it's bound to drive the stock prices of the rivals involved either up or down through the rest of the year".

At the moment, AMD are tipped to have their new hardware on the market first, timed for release alongside Microsoft's new Windows 7. Nvidia, meanwhile, are keeping quiet on the release of their new chips, leading some to speculate that they've fallen behind a little with their design.

Both companies will be making extensive use of 40nm chips on their new cards, and both are expected to have support for DirectX 11 across their range within a year or so.

Graphics chip rivals race to deliver next-generation chips [VentureBeat]

Speaking with Custom PC, representatives from both graphics card manufacturers say that "they're working on GPGPU-accelerated AI in games", and that we could be seeing the first games and hardware to take advantage of this as early as next year.

Nvidia and ATI say they're working right now with developers of both games and middleware on the initiative, with the ultimate goal of taking all AI routines - which spend around 90% of their time performing visibility and path finding queries - off the hands of the CPU, and sticking them in your graphics card instead.

Only problem we can see - and it's a big one - is whether ATI and Nvidia would bother to actually standardise this, or whether we'd end up with two competing solutions that would split the developer community and make the whole thing a royal pain in the ass.

Nvidia and AMD to accelerate gaming AI on GPUs [Custom PC]

Nine hundred workers will lose their jobs, with the remaining reductions coming from attrition and the sale of another business unit. All told, it represents 9 percent of the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company's workforce. This is the third round of layoffs for AMD in the past year, and all told more than 3,000 have been fired.

As for the survivors, their paycheck will be a little lighter. CEO Dirk Meyer and executive chairman Hector Ruiz take a 20 percent hit; top management lose 15 percent; salaried employees drop 10 percent, and hourly workers lose 5 percent. The pay cuts are described as temporary, but at least the structure is somewhat progressive.

Times are tough for everyone, but AMD's been broke before broke was cool. The 2006 acquisition of graphics-card leader ATI is getting plenty of blame. It was a $5.6 billion deal, but in a regulatory filing, AMD revealed it plans to write down ATI's value by another $684 million. That's in addition to a previous $2.5 billion writedown, which means ATI is worth less than half of what AMD paid for it.

AMD to Cut 1,100 Workers, 9 pct of Staff [Associated Press]

AMD, as you may know, merged with graphics card manufacturer ATI back in 2006. So Bergman obviously has a sizeable stake in the future of the PC gaming market. And it's a future he sees as healthy:

There is a very compelling story on why PC gaming is so healthy now. When you consider shipments of high-end gaming rigs and strong sales of online games such as World of Warcraft, you can see how strong it is. Sales at the high end continue to astound me.

Don't know what a low-end game like WoW has to do with the fortunes of a bleeding-edge tech company, but...oh, I see. Console cash money means it doesn't really matter.

The gaming platforms tend to be the first place where games appear, but we are in about 80 percent of the gaming consoles sold, since we’re in the Microsoft and Nintendo consoles.

That's millions and millions of consoles with ATI chips in 'em. Good, safe business, that.

Q&A with AMD’s Rick Bergman on the graphics sweet spot [VentureBeat]

AMD launches "Good Housekeeping" stamp of approval for gaming computers [VentureBeat]

Crysis 1.1 patch performance with Multi-GPU testing [techspot]

In Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War for PC, there is a significant gain in having 512MB of video memory rather than 256MB. So, first and foremost, get at least a 512MB card if you can afford it. If you haven't maxed out your budget, then go for the maximum single-card performance that doesn't require extreme cooling, e.g. buy an entry-level GeForce 8800 over a GeForce 8600.

Remember, while the rule applies to these two games specifically, Sweeney knows what's in store for gamers as the engine is exploited more and more. So pony up, lay down the cash and buy that 512MB card during your next PC upgrade round.

And when Dell recommends the upgrade, you can be like, "Who the @*&$ do you think you are, Tim Sweeney? And yes...I would like the upgrade."

Oh, and for what it's worth, I've heard about games during the past year where they were testing 2GB videocards for future compatibility. Trust me, once these devs get the memory, they ain't handing it back.

Tim Sweeney says memory is all you need [via gamingtoday]

It's important to not forget the PC side of the business to innovation. The PC provides the revenue stream every year for the team. If it was only a console business, we [AMD and NVIDIA] would not be here...

[With consoles] every few years you can reach out and do an interesting thing, but if you didn't have development every six months on the PC, you couldn't sustain your team.

The panel actually had a lot of interesting points for hardware geeks. Hit the link to give it a read. And if you're really a hardware geek, maybe you can name this video card.

IBM, AMD, Nvidia, Intel Talk The Future Of Processors [gamasutra]

Takahashi also claims that Microsoft engineers feel like the heat problem is under control with both the recent Falcon's and older Zephyr's heat sink solutions, so buyers shouldn't beware when picking up new machines. While we're not waiting until the new chipset hits next August to buy a machine, we're not so certain the Microsoft has solved all their manufacturing issues just yet.

Xbox 360 secrets: After Falcon comes Jasper [via mcv]

Discounts on some of Valve's other Half-Life 2 products are also available, making it easier for penny-pinching gamers to get their Gordon Freeman fix and prepare for the eventual release of the Half-Life 2 Orange Box this fall. Or this winter. Or whenever it finally ships. Michael McWhertor

Free Games On Steam [Steam]

Okay, so they're adverdolls, but they're FREE adverdolls. McWhertor is a little disappointed by the fact that her legs are molded together, ruining any possibility of an upskirt shot, but I've always found the key to playing with toys to be the power of imagination. Michael Fahey

I spent some time over the weekend trying to mock up a desktop that would let me use at least some of my current bits and pieces.

I'm not exactly thrilled with all of the components in the system, but staying at about $1,000, this seems to be the best I could do.

I leaned heavily, very heavily, on Ars Technica's Hot Rod specs for this system. (thanks, Dan) I also tried building systems with Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Voodoo PC and Hypersonic. I found that Alienware was the most reasonably priced (they came in at $2,120), but I wasn't happy with some of their options, including graphics card, so I think I'll build my own.

I think I'm going to go with an Abit KN8 Ultra motherboard. It isn't SLI-capable, but I don't think I will be using that anytime soon, and it's super affordable, coming in at under $90.

For the processor I decided to go with AMD's Athlon 64 X2 4600+. I'm still going back and forth on the processor speed. The 4200 runs $350, while the 4600 comes in at $530. I'm not sure if it's worth the extra money. I'm a little worried about the whole AMD over Intel. I know I probably shouldn't be, but I was one of those people who bought an AMD chip right when they were getting started and it wasn't a pleasant experience.

As you guys almost all suggested, I'll be going with two 1GB sticks of ram. I'm leaning toward the Kingston PC3200s (about $88 each), but if you have a better suggestion I'm all ears.

My graphics card selection was between Radeon's X1800XT or X1900 XT (both with 512) or Nvidia's GeForce 7900GT. The Radeons were considerably less expensive and since I opted for a non-SLI card, I think I'll go with either the 1800 or 1900. There's a $90 price difference between the two, so I'm still pondering which to choose.

I'm going to stick with my two Barracuda 7200 120GB harddrives. I'm also going to keep my SoundBlaster sound card and my three flat panel monitors.

Since my power supply is way too weak (250 watts), I'm going to go with an Antec SLK3800B case which comes with a built in 400W power supply. I'm a little worried that even 400W, won't be good future proofing, but upgrading that down the line shouldn't be a problem. My other option is to stick with my Gateway case and just buy a power supply like the 600W Coolermaster, which uns about $78.

This system rings up at about $1,000 to $1,200 (depending on my choices), which isn't that bad.

So here are my main concerns. Is it a bad idea to skip out on the SLI-enabled motherboard and go with ATI? And, do you think mixing AMD and ATI is a bad decision? Brian Crecente

Ars System Guide [Ars Technica]

Graphics whores, rejoice! If you were left feeling a Wii-bit empty from the polygonal stylings of Nintendos' crop of E3 titles, don't give up hope yet. The ATI folks responsible for the Wii's "Hollywood" graphics chip say you might just be surprised at the graphical tricks you'll see in the future—but it's also not just about the graphics.

I think what you saw was just the tip of the iceberg of what the Hollywood chip can bring to the Nintendo Wii. I really don't think that it's about the [specs]; I think it's about the innovation that it brings to the table—the motion-sensing, the always-on capability—the fact that the chip is powerful enough and responsive enough to be there at a moment's notice, and I think that's pretty cool for the average gamer.

Indeed. But what's up with that "always-on" thing? According to an interview with Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata, Nintendo is going to use the WiiConnect24 platform to send monthly demos to your DS—while you sleep! Scary, but cool! Michael McWhertor

ATI: Wii Graphics at E3 "Tip of the Iceberg"
Iwata: "Nintendo is not working on a next-generation console"

During a DirectX 10-related event in London, UK, Richard Huddy, ATI Technologies' software developers relations chief, said that Microsoft's Vista will integrate DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 APIs for different types of hardware, but the current Windows XP will not get DirectX 10 support, as suggested some rumours earlier. For end users this means that to get the most advantages of the new-generation graphics processing units (GPUs), the new OS will be required.

Microsoft is really trying to push Vista down the craws of gamers. Fair enough — those who can afford top-of-the-line, Direct X 10 capable video cards will certainly have beefy enough systems to run Vista anyway. Let's hope Vista is enough of an improvement over XP to justify the move.FLORIAN ECKHARDT

Direct X 10 Vista Only [XBitLabs]

Instead, we're referring to ATI's new 'Chuck' patch for Oblivion, which enables both HDR and AA support on ATI RT5xx hardware. Oblivion PC had previously automatically disabled anti-aliasing when High Dynamic Range was turned on. Now it won't.

But the real reason we're posting this is this priceless statement from an ATI spokesperson on why it's called the 'Chuck' patch:

It's called the "Chuck patch" in honor of our guy that found a way of enabling this functionality.

Right on. If you've got an uber rig and some ATI hardware, you can download the patch below.

ATI Oblivion 'Chuck' Patch

In an interview with Edge Magazine, Richard Huddy, European Developers Relations Manager for ATI, said that while the PS3 has lots of brute force, it s unrefined.

Q: You make it sound so unrefined!

A: [Laughs.] Well, yeah, but the tragedy is that it is unrefined. There's a lot brute force in there - I'd be the last person to admit it, but the truth is that the 7800GTX is a pretty powerful piece of hardware, but it's not very elegant, it hasn't got the kind of: 'Well, how do we design this to be the best possible console we can build for this money?' Instead it's been put together at the end of quite a complicated process. We have two very different design processes. If Microsoft had come to us and said: 'All right, what are we going to do about this graphics chip, then? Let's sign the contract and let's go', but then we'd got two thirds through and they'd said: 'Look, you guys aren't going to deliver - now what are you going to do?' and then walked away from us, they would have ended up with a design very much like the PS3 in some essential characteristics - it would have had to use bought-in components. And our GPUs instead are custom-designed components, and that's one of the fundamental reasons why I think Xbox 360 technology is likely to outperform PlayStation 3 technology by a pretty healthy margin in the long run.

ATI Says PS3 is Unrefined [Gamers Report]